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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1844152" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 39: One Final LightHundreds of people could be seen along the main street. Walking here and there, some standing near a balcony speaking, others simply taking in the sights of Coruscant. So oblivious to everything around them. The image flickered slightly, and a few of the people stopped, looking up beyond the image’s border. Slowly, more people seemed to take notice of whatever it was. A few of them, obviously the smarter ones in the crowd, ran. Of course, they weren’t that smart, as they ran in all different directions. This caused more people to run, chaos spreading quickly among all of the people within the view.     In a moment, a black form swooped down from the upper quadrant of the screen. It came down on a group of at least five people, tearing apart two of them with its legs as it landed, and clawing and biting at the rest. People scattered as the Darkwing tore a path of death through them, killing anything in its path. It was only a few moments before the walkway was filled only with bodies, blood, and the Darkwing. Within the talons of the Darkwing, was a small form.    Jen closed her eyes, not wanting to continue seeing it. Akan found himself unable to look away. Even Voort was stunned at the carnage. In the distance, airspeeders could be seen streaking across the sky towards the Darkwing. But that really didn’t matter anymore. In the foreground, it became clear what the form in the Darkwing’s talons was. A child. Human. No older than seven standard years. In one horrifying moment, easily topping all of the gore and pain up to that point, the Darkwing tore the child apart. Jen hadn’t watched...but the sound was impossible to miss, even from the distance that the holorecorder likely was at. She cringed as Voort and Akan did. It was a reaction that didn’t truly sum up any of their feelings on it, but somehow it was all they could manage. Of course, Sadrak was giggling like a happy child. Ironic and even more painful considering.    The Inquisitor smiled again, and Akan felt a ripple through the Force. Then, the holo image cut off, and Sadrak turned back to them, “A suitable demonstration, I believe.  Now, the creature will return soon. Before that however, let us finish things.    By now, Akan had sat up. As Sadrak stepped over towards them, standing just at the top of the steps, Voort and Akan exchanged glanced. If you can, go at him now Akan sent through the Force. It was likely that Sadrak would detect the ripple that it caused, but not the details. That was all the mattered at this point. Voort’s answer to Akan wasn’t a nod, or a word. In a quick motion, the former Imperial was up on his feet, arm extended towards Sadrak. A bolt of blue lightning shot out from Voort’s hand towards the Inquisitor. Jen gasped slightly at that, but Akan wasn’t surprised. He was surprised, however, at Sadrak’s quick reaction of drawing a lightsaber from his belt and activating it just in time to catch Voort’s lightning on a bright red blade.    Voort had done the perfect thing, though. Not paying anymore attention to it, Akan got up and ran towards the side of the room, up the steps and past Sadrak. Of course, Sadrak took notice of this, and with a free hand, directed a large desk in Akan’s direction. Akan hit the ground in time for it to fly over, and the distraction this had caused to Sadrak had given Jen time to get to her feet and fumble to get her blaster pistol off the ground. Sure, it probably wouldn’t do much, but it would be one more thing for Sadrak to have to deal with. Voort was moving to. Holding the stream of lightning, he moved to the side and up the steps slowly. Sadrak was having to multitask so much that it was no problem for Voort to get past him and work towards where his lightsaber had been tossed to.    His eyes caught onto the metal hilt behind a large tube. Voort stopped throwing the force lightning at Sadrak, and instead reached out with the Force to pull his lightsaber to him. This moment left him defenseless, and Sadrak should have easily been able to attack him. But again, he was dealing with three. The moment Voort had stopped his attack, Jen had started her’s, a stream of blaster fire from over a chair she’d gotten behind. Sadrak had been forced to turn away from Voort and focus on deflecting the shots from Jen. When Voort had retrieved his lightsaber, a snap-hiss of the blade activating got Sadrak’s attention just in time to catch a low swing towards his knees. Jen stopped her firing, watching as the orange blade collided with the red blade in a blinding flurry.     By then, Akan had gotten to his feet again and retrieved his own weapon. As Sadrak parried a high swing from Voort, a second snap-hiss sounded behind him. The Inquisitor reached in time to spin around, parrying Akan’s blue-green blade. Jen watched in amazement as Sadrak parried blow after blow, from both behind him and in front of him, even managing to push an attack on both Voort and Akan every few seconds. But beyond them, Jen saw movement. The Darkwing was back. She stood up completely and tried to get a shot, but couldn’t aim beyond the three with lightsabers. Instead, she managed to yell a warning. All three of them turned. But Sadrak and Voort quickly went at it again, with Sadrak pushing Voort slowly down the steps. Akan back off, turning to face the Darkwing which was very obviously flying straight at him. He bent down slightly, holding the blue-green blade up in front of him and not wanting to have to use it. But there wasn’t going to be a choice. And there wasn’t any time.    Suddenly, the Darkwing was upon him, attempting a quick fly by while slashing at the Jedi with a sharp talon. Akan ducked and rolled low, swinging his lightsaber overhead and lopping off part of the feathered right wing. But the Darkwing managed to take a good section of Akan’s side with it. He didn’t get up from the roll, and the Darkwing spun around to land not far from him. Now, standing in such a way to block Jen’s view. Voort and Sadrak were too tightly engaged in a fierce sword fight to have time to even glance away anymore, each managing to just barely stay alive by quick parries and dodges.    Over the Darkwing, Jen caught sight of the blue-green blade again. Akan had stood up. She watched it move slowly to the right. Soon, the Darkwing moved to the side, opposite him, growling and watching for the right moment to strike. Somehow, through the clash of the two lightsabers, Jen heard Akan speaking, “Shadow...don’t do this...come on....”    But it got no response. Simply the same low growl. Akan risked a glance to the others. Jen watched him take a deep breath. Something changed within him. She could...feel it as well as see it. The lightsaber in his hand deactivated. Jen was about to call out to him when the Darkwing pounced. Jen saw the black form consume Akan’s, but not before a small, metallic shape flew across the air and landed not far from her. Akan’s lightsaber. He’d thrown it to her. I save her, or I die with her. Kill Sadrak. His voice rang through her mind.     Jen had never used a lightsaber before. In fact, she’d never use a knife...even for cooking. It was never something she was any good at. But now...she had to. Holstering her blaster, Jen ran over and picked up Akan’s blade. She took one last look to the form of the Darkwing, seeing the mass was struggling with something, then look to Voort. He was pushed back into the wall, though still defending himself well. Jen took a deep breath, thumbed the activation switch on the lightsaber, and charged at Sadrak’s back.</blockquote>

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